THE NEW MAP OF ASIA
ORE than one-half the human
race lives in Asia, which has an
area nearly six times as large
as continental United States, approximat
ing one-third of the earth's entire land
surface.
Asia boasts the world's highest peak,
lt. Everest, 29,140 feet, and the ocean's
deepest pit, off the coast of Mindanao, in
the Philippines, 32,088 feet. Somewhere
within its borders was probably the birth
place of man, and from those fastnesses
within the shadow of its Himalayas began
the migrations which resulted in the peo
pling of all the continents and all the
islands of the seas. It is a land of teeming
millions of men and of vast solitudes.
There are twelve rivers on the earth's
surface which exceed 2,5oo miles in
length, and of these six rise in and flow
through Asia.
The continent extends from Cape
Chelyuskin, within twelve and a half de
grees of the North Pole, to the Malay
Peninsula, within one and a half degrees
of the Equator; and from the Strait of
Bab El Mandeb, separating Arabia from
Africa, to the Bering Strait, separating
Siberia from Alaska, is 6,700 miles
more than a fourth of the circumference
of the globe.
.A M\1inIVAL
EalMIRk DI) SMI iMl:II)
To the casual observer, the New Map
of Asia, published by the National Geo
graphic Society and issued as a su)ple
ment with this number of 'T'ri (;iEo
GRAPH IC, ' may not present an appearance
radically different from that of pre-war
Asia ; and yet the world conflict on the
fields of Europe has wrought vast changes
here, resulting in the dismemberment of
a great empire, which had come down
from medieval times, the creation of five
new nations, the provisional creation of
four others, and the possible evolution of
half a score of semi-independent states
from the wreck of what were once the
proud provinces that gave allegiance to
the Tsar under the collective name of
"Russia in Asia."
*Additional copies of the New Map of Asia
may be obtained from the headquarters of The
National Geographic Society in Washington.
paper, $1.co .
While, with the exception of the Turks.
none of the ancient peoples of Asia par
ticipated in the World \\ar to the same
extent as European and American peo
ples, there were fewer neutral govern
ments in the Orient than in Europe; for
Siberia, as a part of Russia; India,
Burma, and the suzerain states which
cluster on the slopes of the Ilimalayas,
as parts of the British Empire; Indo
China, as a part of the French Colonial
Empire; Persia, as a battleground for
contending armies ; Arabia, China, Japan,
and Siam in their own right-all were
involved in the struggle.
EVERY ASIATIC NATION AFFECTED
Strictly speaking, Afghanistan and
Mongolia alone of all Asia's vast domin
ions were untouched politically by the
World War; and even these two nations
were not wholly divorced from it, but
were affected indirectly, as Mongolia
from 1913 to 1919 was under the protec
tion and guidance of Russia, and Britain's
influence was paramount at the court of
the Amir of Afghanistan.
As an ally of the Germans, Turkey by
her defeat has lost not only most of her
territory in Europe, but has been forced
to surrender extensive and populous por
tions of her Asiatic empire, out of which
have been set up the "independent states"
of Syria, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Hed
jaz, and Armenia and the autonomous
province of Kurdistan.
France has assumed a guardianship
(mandate) over Syria, and Britain exer
cises a similar office toward Palestine and
\lesopotamia until such time as the three
countries can be entrusted with their own
affairs. Armenia, though created a sepa
rate state by the Treaty of Sevres (the
Turkish treaty), has not as vet had her
boundaries definitely delimited.
Unless this treaty is radically revised,
as is now contemplated. Greece will ad
minister a large and prosperous district
surrounding Smyrna, the most important
port of Asia Minor, for five years, at the
end of which time a plebiscite will be held
to determine whether the inhabitants
wish the area to be incorporated perma
nently as a part of Greece or resume its